The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises will finally be heaving a sigh of relief as all the 21 Australia and England players arriving at the UAE will only be required to undergo just 36 hours of quarantine instead of the earlier prescribed six days. All the franchises which have English and Australian cricketers arriving after the ODI and T20I series in the UK had appealed for reducing the quarantine period and the BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly has been able to successfully sort the issue out with local authorities.
Describing the same, a senior IPL functionary while talking to PTI said, “Yes, I can confirm that all the English and Australian players have to now undergo 36-hour quarantine instead of six days. The matter has been sorted and most of the teams will now have their big stars available from the first game itself.”
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The likes of Steve Smith, David Warner, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler have arrived in the UAE late on Thursday night (UAE time) from the UK and on arrival will undergo the RT-PCR test for COVID-19.
Describing the same, a senior BCCI official said, “They have undergone one rapid test before boarding (the flight) and will undergo another on arrival. Otherwise, the robust testing protocols will be followed as usual. The rationale behind the move is that all the players are entering from one bio-bubble to another.”
The PTI had earlier reported that one of the senior players had requested to the BCCI president Ganguly requesting for a three-day quarantine, instead of six. The BCCI has had conversations with at least three franchises that have Australian and English stars and they seem to be very happy with the outcome.
One of the franchise officials said, “The BCCI did a great job in reducing the quarantine period to 36 hours. This means teams like Chennai Super Kings (Josh Hazlewood and Tom Curran), Rajasthan Royals (Smith, Buttler, Archer) will have all their players available from their first game. Ditto for Kings XI Punjab that has Glenn Maxwell in its roster and Delhi Capitals that has Alex Carry.”
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The only franchise that was unaffected by the mandatory quarantine period of six days was Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), which has its first game of the season on September 23 with Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton, and Pat Cummins in their squad.
